Nissan’s first GT Academy graduates will enter endurance races this year

Nissan will see the first three graduates of its GT Academy compete against the world’s best endurance racers in three racing events this year. The graduates, Lucas Ordonez, Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough, will compete in three different endurance racing series. The Spaniard Ordonez will vie for the overall championship in the European Le Mans Series, along with Tom Kimber-Smith and Alex Brundle.

He will campaign under the banner of Greaves Motorsport using a LMP2 Zytek-Nissan. He proved GT Academy’s driving quality was one of the world’s best when he and his Signatech Nissan team took the second place in their class in last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. He will try to reach the podium again this year at the Le Mans 24 Hours by racing with Martin and Alex Brundle, but under the wings of Greaves Motorsport.

Tresson, meanwhile, was considered the driver with the steepest learning curve in 2012. The 23-year-old Frenchman finished his debut season in GT racing with a championship.

This year, he will compete at the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship with Signatech Nissan. He will attempt to follow the lead of Ordonez when he competes at the Le Mans 24 Hours this summer. The 20 year-old British Mardenborough recently won the third season of GT Academy. He underwent the rigorous GT Academy training program to get ready to ride a season in the Blancpain Endurance Series in Nissan's new GT3 race car, the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.

"2011 was an incredible year for me," said Ordonez. "I learned a lot with Signatech Nissan. They believed in me and trusted me to get the job done. Nissan has set me my next challenge: an overall championship victory. With two top team-mates and a championship-winning team I am aiming to win the European Le Mans Series outright. The Le Mans 24 Hours will again be a big challenge for me and I'm very much looking forward to racing with Martin (Brundle) as I will learn a lot from him. With Martin, Alex and myself I think we will have one of the strongest line-ups in LMP2. It feels great to be able to say that!"